Aircraft damaged, PM changes plane for Copenhagen

In a bizarre incident, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special aircraft scheduled to carry him to Copenhagen was today hit by a hydraulic trolley loaded with food, forcing him to opt for another aircraft and delaying his departure by three hours.

In a bizarre incident, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special aircraft scheduled to carry him to Copenhagen was today hit by a hydraulic trolley loaded with food, forcing him to opt for another aircraft and delaying his departure by three hours.

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The mishap occurred at the VVIP area of Delhi airport around 12.30 PM when the trolley hit the cargo door of Air India's 747-400 damaging it while the loading operations were in progress.

The security and other officials held an emergency meeting at the airport and decided to use an alternate aircraft for the Prime Minister's travel which resulted in a three-hour delay. The plane took off at 5.45 PM.

An embarrassed Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel rushed to the airport and ordered a high-level inquiry. "Let the inquiry report come. Then we will know whether there was anything mala fide in this," he said.